Kindergarten introduction to growth mindset

I did an introduction to the brain and growth mindset with my Kindergarteners, in 2 lessons over 2 days. First I read some pages from the "Fantastic Elastic Brain", and we discussed what the brain does for us and how practice makes it better at doing things. They especially were engaged in brainstorming a list of what the brain does (talk, move, etc) and comparing their list with the ones on that topic in the book. They also enjoyed thinking of all the things they have learned to do now, that they couldn't do as a baby. We ended the read-aloud part of the lesson with the page about kids getting better in soccer by continuing to practice, and talked about some things that they are hoping to get better at by continuing to work hard at it. (They did some pair shares throughout the lesson, so they had opportunities to talk about their ideas and hear from a partner, as well as some that were shared out with the whole group.) Students came up with a lot of different ideas, like Karate and Swimming. For the activity, students were given one sheet of blank paper, folded in half. They were asked to draw themselves doing something they have learned how to do well on the left side, and on the right side they drew something they wanted to get better at, perhaps over the summer or next year in first grade. After drawing the pictures, students were encouraged to write one sentence under each picture, using the frames "I learned ____" and "I want to learn___"Day 2: I did a mini talk about growth and fixed mindset and reviewed what we talked about the previous day.  I gave them some examples of things that might happen to them or someone else and how they could try to use the growth mindset to try to solve the problem.  They got it right away and gave great examples. :) Lessons co-planned by Heather and Rhonda